Malta and World War I

Among the Maltese stamps I got as Christmas present is one set about the World War I Centenary.

During World War I Malta was not directly involved in the fighting, but nursed many casualties. The first group of casualties arrived in 1915 after the landing in Gallipoli. Before the war there were only four military hospitals in Malta, but during the war there were 27. During the war Malta nursed over 100000 men. This earned Malta the title Nurse of the Mediterranean.

The first two stamps of the set show military hospitals.

The third stamp shows the HMHS Rewa.
The HMHS was first a cargo and passenger vessel and after the outbreak of World War I the Royal Navy used her as hospital ship. In 1918 she was returning from Malta to Great Britain. While this journey she was hit in the Bristol Channel on 4th January 1918 by the torpedo of a German submarine. The ship took two hours to sink, so there was enough time to rescue all wounded men and the ship's crew. Only four engine men died in the initial explosion. The German High Command denied the sinking of the ship and blamed it on a British mine. Nevertheless the German Naval Command had declared total war and ordered submarine captains to sink all Allied ships. This sinking of hospital ships violated Hague Convention X. Wilhelm Werner, the captain of the German submarine, feared the consequences after the war and escaped to Brazil.

The stamps were issued on 07-11-2014.